NEW DELHI: A novel proposal before the Union Home Ministry to make three short films or documentaries to promote communal harmony has been gathering dust since 2014 when the Narendra
Modi government came to power.
Sources in the government said “the project had failed to take off because it did not feature among the government’s priorities” and also because a measly budget was proposed for the making the film.
The only progress the proposal has made since it was first mooted is that the budget has been reduced and the government now wants to make only one film, not three.
Documents of the last four years accessed by The New Sunday Express show that the initial budget was Rs 15-20 lakh. But the government felt this was too high it has been brought down to Rs 8-10 lakh.
The task of making the short film was assigned to an autonomous body under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is the chairperson of the organisation’s governing council.
The body, however, is managed and administered by the executive council headed by the Union Home Secretary, currently Rajiv Gauba.
In November 2014, actor-director Rahul Bose and noted filmmaker Raja Chaudhary were roped in for the project but their proposal was termed to be “too expensive”.
In 2015, the Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), the nodal agency for all Union government advertisements, was also involved and scripts were invited for the film. But the project has barely moved forward.
According to the minutes of the EC meeting on February 6, 2015, the government examined three scripts forwarded by the DAVP but none was approved.